11/29/2018
We wanted to reach out to you all to let you know that we are actively involved in the Grant Lake Hydro Project discussions - namely, the FERC draft EIS meeting held last night in Moose Pass.
Grant Creek is a tributary to the Kenai River watershed. Grant creek supports populations of Kenai River King Salmon, Coho Salmon and Sockeye Salmon.
Homer Electric is in the advanced stages of their EIS process and we wanted to let you all know the impacts this project will have on spawning and juvenile salmon, the watershed and the Moose Pass area.
-First, and the most alarming: We learned last night that FERC is not recommending any documentation of salmon or salmonoids in the creek, both prior to and throughout the life of their hydroelectric project. Homer Electric will not even have to count, nor document the impacts this project will have on Salmon. They also will not suffer any repercussions if the creek fails to support spawning salmon after the project has been built.
-Second: Homer Electric is proposing to re-route the historic Iditarod trail (which is adjacent to the proposed project build site).
-Third: the representatives from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission were not even aware that Alaska has documented major inefficiencies and stranded power on the current grid system. This alone proves that the railbelt doesn't even need the minuscule amount of power this project proposes to produce.
-Homer Electric has stated that "if the project harms fish, we won't go through with it." How will we know if it will harm fish if they won't even have to count fish?
Further, Homer Electric abruptly put an end to their plans to build a solar project that had already been approved by their board.
Homer Electric already draws off of the Bradley Lake Hydro Project which solves emergency issues with power outages and provides a storage bank.
We will be sending out further communications with links to comment and get more information about this project.
Thank you so much for your support!
